Yeovil Hospital was one of a handful of hospitals in England to meet an important waiting time target for emergency care last year.
The hospital saw 96.9% of all patients who arrived at its Emergency Department (A&E) within four-hours, exceeding the 95% target set by NHS England.
This was despite one of the busiest winters on record for the NHS, with exceptionally high-demand causing challenges for many A&E departments. National figures showed that the overall performance for A&Es in March was 84.6%. This made Yeovil Hospital the third best performing hospital in the country in that month.
Yeovil itself saw a significant increase in the number of people attending its emergency department compared to previous years. In the year 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018, 50,455 people attended Yeovil’s emergency department, compared to 46,452 in the previous year; an increase of 4,003 people or 8.6%
Simon Sethi, the hospital’s Director of Operations and Urgent Care, said:
“The fact we’ve been able to achieve such good performance at a time of such high demand is testament to the incredible commitment and hard-work of staff throughout the hospital and in our local health and care system. This is truly a whole-system effort.”
With demand for urgent care increasing year-on-year, the hospital has had to think differently about how it cares for patients, working closely with colleagues in community and primary care (GP practices) to help people stay well and at home. Where necessary, the hospital and partners work to provide services on the same day without requiring patients to stay in a hospital bed overnight. Doing so helps people maintain independence which, for older patients, can often be severely impacted during a stay in hospital.
“There’s always further improvement to be made, but we’re confident that by listening to what patients and our teams tell us, and supporting them to deliver excellent care, we can continue to provide people with the very best care when they need us most. This is more important than achieving a target – it is about caring for everyone as if they’re a member of our family.”
Categorised in: Trust news and events
This post was written by Communications Team
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